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www.aucklandnow.co.nz
Friday, October 14, 2011
If you love carefree motoring, you'll love
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love your car
It's rugby party time
A HUGE party at Stanmore Bay
celebrates Rugby World Cup finals
day on October 23.
Festival attendance is capped at
about 6000 for safety reasons and
includes displays, family sports and
activities, a wine stadium, artisan
food market, rugby on the big
screen and a fireworks finale.
It's based in and around The
Leisure Centre starting at 3pm.
The festival has family sports
with Kelly Sports on the main soc-
cer field, a boat show by the Hibis-
cus Coast Boat Club, Silverdale
Rugby Club Rippa Rugby exhibition
games, Hibiscus Coast Raiders tag
league, Whangaparaoa Rotary Trol-
ley Derby display races and In2It
family fun.
Down at the beach from 3.30pm is
a junior mini life saving carnival
with Thundercat exhibition races
between events.
Sealeg amphibious craft rides are
held at 4.30pm, combined with
Coastguard off-shore demons-
trations.
At 5pm The Leisure Centre opens
with The Vintry Winery and an
indoor artisan food market. A free
carnival is on the centre reserve,
along with an outdoor twilight mar-
ket, food vendors and a Raiders bar-
becue.
South Kaipara band The
Westwoods take the stage at 5pm,
performing 1970s and 1980s rock
classics from artists like Fleetwood
Mac, Neil Young and ZZ Top.
More bands follow at 6pm and
7pm, along with two hours of
classics from local performers The
Fraudsters.
Big screen entertainment starts
at 8.50pm and a fireworks display is
at 10.30pm if the final game con-
clusion time allows.
The festival site is fully licensed
so no BYO is allowed.
Goal kicking robot takes on an All Black legend
Robotic rival: Former All Black Andrew Mehrtens takes stock of his opposition Robo Dan made at Massey University's Albany campus.
Rugby's past met its possible
future when former All Black
Andrew Mehrtens took on
three robotic creations in a
kicking duel.
Engineering students de-
signed the robotic challenges
and Massey Albany's Robo
Dan proved the most success-
ful, holding the former world
cup kicker and Crusader to a
5-all draw at Victoria Park.
A robot kicker from each of
Massey's Albany and Mana-
watu campuses and another
from Canterbury University
entered the challenge.
The event was part of the
Rutherford Innovation show-
case to highlight New
Zealand's achievements in
technology and industry dur-
ing the Rugby World Cup.
Mr Mehrtens tested his
mettle against their metal in
a series of goal kicks using a
Gilbert Rugby World Cup
ball.
Robo Dan had a pneumatic-
powered, metal leg attached
to a human mannequin com-
plete with swivelling robotic
head.
Massey's Manawatu robot
Woderwick cleared the goal
posts beautifully during its
warm-up but struggled with
accuracy and distance later.
Canterbury's robot made up
for missed attempts with its
good drop kicking form. No
groin injuries were reported.
Mr Mehrtens, an ambassa-
dor for NZ 2011, says the con-
test was a tough ask for the
robots.
I've been doing this all my
life. Along come some robots
that were probably only born
a couple of weeks ago.''
Associate professor Johan
Potgieter is a lecturer in
mechatronics at Massey's
Albany campus. He's
delighted with Robo Dan,
created by his students.
Creating a robot that could
potentially out-kick an All
Blacks legend took plenty of
imagination and hard work,
he says.
We looked at some of the
great rugby legends in this
country and observed how
they kick a ball. We realised
it's not just about power, it's
about timing too.''
He says the challenges
centred on getting the anat-
omy and movement accurate
through kinematic design
and computerised modelling.
The robotic leg is powered
by pneumatic hoses and con-
trolled by a Siemens XYZ pro-
grammable logic controller.
It was made with the help
of three visiting French
engineering interns from
Ensil, an advanced engineer-
ing school in Limoges, and
students.
Robots like Robo Dan could
be used in the testing of
sports equipment such as
rugby balls, Mr Potgieter
says.
The robots were on show at
the first Robotics World Cup
at The Cloud this week.